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Press Releases
2003.04.23

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ACCESS’ Micro-Browser to be Integrated in Latest Handset Manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric European Subsidiary, MELCO MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS EUROPE S.A. for European i-mode® Service

Tokyo, Japan / Fremont, USA / Oberhausen, Germany – April 23, 2003 – ACCESS (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 4813), a leading supplier of embedded software for mobile telephones, PDAs, Internet appliances, car navigation systems and other non-PC devices, today announced that its micro-browser Compact NetFrontTM Plus will be deployed in the latest mobile handset manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric’s European subsidiary, MELCO MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS EUROPE S.A. This handset, the m21i, is compatible with the i-mode service on GPRS which Europe’s KPN Mobile group launched on a commercial basis last year, services of which have expanded throughout Europe though BASE (Belgium), e-plus (Germany), and Bouygues Telecom (France).

To date, ACCESS has provided its Compact NetFront Plus micro-browser for all international i-mode mobile handsets, including three NEC models, two Toshiba models, and forthcoming models for expected release manufactured by NEC (n31i) and Samsung. ACCESS’ microbrowser Compact NetFront Plus enables i-mode users to seamlessly view content in formats like WML and HTML (including Compact HTML).

ACCESS will continue to expand the market for i-mode services worldwide in cooperation with operators and handset manufacturers in respective countries by taking advantage of wireless Internet technologies and know-how acquired in the domestic i-mode market.

“We are very pleased to have our Compact NetFront Plus browser integrated in GPRS mobile phones made by Mitsubishi Electric subsidiary, MELCO MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS EUROPE S.A. for international i-mode services. To ensure success in international markets, we would like to share the business experience gained in the Japanese market and contribute our wireless technologies towards the development of services. We expect the growth of the global mobile Internet market to be interrelated to the network functions embedded in all mobile phones,” said Toru Arakawa, president and chief executive officer, ACCESS Co., Ltd.

About Compact Net Front Plus
Compact NetFront Plus is a microbrowser designed for 2.5G and 3G global wireless services. In addition to Compact HTML/iHTML, it supports WML1.3 and XHTML Basic Internet standards and displays HTML and WML-based Internet content seamlessly through a single browser.Through its HTTP standard proxy server, Compact NetFront Plus enables operators to connect seamlessly to existing WML-based Internet content, portal sites or open CHTML/XHTML sites. As a result, operators are able to deploy Internet services with lower investment costs. Unlike a WAP gateway, which is only able to access WML content, the HTTP proxy server enables operators to directly access a wider range of Internet content through the standard TCP/IP Internet protocol.

About ACCESS
ACCESS Co. Ltd. (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 4813) is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with ACCESS Systems America, Inc., its US subsidiary, in Fremont, California, ACCESS Systems Europe GmbH, its German subsidiary, in Oberhausen, Germany, and with ACCESS (Beijing) Co., Ltd, its Chinese subsidiary, in Beijing, China. ACCESS is a leading global provider of software and services for IP-based consumer electronic devices. ACCESS’ embedded NetFront and Compact NetFront browsers power 191 different commercial products worldwide including mobile phones, digital televisions, set-top boxes, game consoles, PDAs, car navigation systems, web phones, kiosk terminals and intranet terminals. ACCESS’ Compact NetFront microbrowser is most widely deployed in phones for NTT DoCoMo’s popular i-mode service. To date, almost 80 million ACCESS software licenses have shipped from more than 40 major Internet device manufactures (As of November, 2002). ACCESS was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers market on February 26, 2001. More information is available at http://www.access.co.jp/english/.

ACCESS was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers market on February 26, 2001.


ACCESS is a registered trademark in Japan. NetFront, Compact NetFront are registered trademarks of ACCESS Co., Ltd. in Japan. NetFront is a registered trademark of NetFront Communications, Inc. in the United States and is used under license. i-mode is a registered trademark of NTT DoCoMo, Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Inc. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners.


Contacts

Asia Contact:
ACCESS Co., Ltd., Japan
Kazunori Takahashi
81 (3) 5259-3685
prinfo@access.co.jpcom
Europe Contact:
ACCESS Systems Europe GmbH
Claudia Hoeck
49 (208) 8290-6432
hoeck@access-sys-eu.com
China Contact:
ACCESS China Inc.
Delia Liu
86 (10) 6566-9636
delia_cn@access.co.jp
US Contacts:
ACCESS Systems America
Manuel Morales
(510) 284-0708
mmorales@access-us-inc.com
Bite Communications Anne-miek Hamelinck
(415) 614-3622
annemiek@bitepr.com